My sister is reading a book in which the author speaks of the angel in Revelation 8:3-7 as being Jesus. The author also says that the prayers of the saints which are being offered with the incense upon the golden altar are the prayers of the raptured church for those ‘christians’ who missed the rapture and are now enduring the tribulation. To settle a disagreement about these verses, my sister would like you to explain who the angel and the saints are.

Re: Rev. 11:19 The Ark of the Covenant was seen by John, as related in Revelation, in Heaven in the future. Now if the Ark of the Covenant is there then is it not likely that it is there presently?

And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

My question has to do with what the Bible refers to as “hardening of hearts”. There are many examples in the Bible of people hardening their hearts toward God. For instance Ephesians 4:17-18 (NLT) states, “Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him”. My understanding of verses like these are that our hearts are hardened toward God and accepting Jesus as our savior because of our sinful and ungodly behavior.

Other verses state that God hardened someone’s heart. For example, in God’s dealing with Moses and Pharaoh in Exodus 4:21 God stated, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go.” My understanding of this is that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that pharaoh would, “see His power and that His fame might spread throughout the earth,” (Exodus 9:16). Am I correct in saying that God, who knows the end from the beginning, knew that Pharaoh would never turn to Him so God used Pharaoh for this purpose?

I have been a Christian for a long time and have always believed in Jesus Christ, however, as of late, I realized that I didn’t understand why I believed what I believed, so I set out on a quest. I wanted to understand why others from different faiths believed what they believed about God. This quest brought me to a finding that I have a question about. It would appear that Hinduism predates Judaism. I also found that Krishna has a very similar story as Jesus. Now please don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer in Jesus, I was just hoping for an explanation for my findings. Again, I am a firm believer, but I guess I am on a quest of reassurance. I wish I had more faith so I didn’t doubt all the time. It really isn’t that I doubt what I believe, I just want answers to back it up. Do you think this is wrong to have a lack of faith like this? To question things all the time like I do?

I always thought Hell was forever, but I recently read another view called the conditional view. It teaches that the unrighteous will be resurrected, judged, punished in Hell for a period of time proportional to their sins, and then suffer destruction (both body and soul). The author mentions several points against eternal punishment but he states “the most convincing of all arguments against the traditional viewpoint relates to what Jesus Himself suffered on the cross. What was that punishment? It was extreme punishment followed by death. If Jesus did not suffer the full penalty for our sin, our debt has not been paid. But the Scriptures say that He paid the full debt and it was not eternal torment.” What do you think of that argument?

I’m having difficulty verifying the mention of the Trumpet of God in Exodus 19. The only place I can find the phrase ‘trumpet of God’ is I Thes. 4. In Ex. 19, I see a ‘very loud trumpet blast’ in v. 16, and a ‘the sound of the trumpet’, in v. 19. Am I missing the ‘trumpet of God’? Is that in the Hebrew instead of the English?

I don’t know how to specifically phrase my question. I know there are evil spirits in this world. I know the disciples were given the power to drive out spirits, but I have always been taught that we are not to be involved with the spirit world. I am asking about this now because someone at my church (which surprised me) has told me that one of my grandchildren is possessed by a spirit. We recently found out she has been involved with some children playing around with witchcraft and devil worship so nothing would surprise me. He wants to drive the spirit out. I am really concerned about getting into all of this. What should I do?

What is binding and loosing? Is it appropriate for Christians to pray for binding and loosing? If not then what is the proper way?

I know that all whose names were not found in the book of life are going to be thrown in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:15). Why then does it say later on that nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it (New Jerusalem), but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Rev. 21:27)

I guess it seems like an obvious question, but here it almost indicated that there will be those who are unclean who exist outside the city, but they will never be able to enter. Is the lake of fire outside the New Jerusalem, or are these sinners who live outside of the city?

I was reading my Bible again, (I’m trying to read the whole thing), and I was going from Genesis through Exodus. I used to wish that I could have lived during those times, but now you couldn’t pay me to go there. It seems like every time Israel messes up, they get wiped out. But then I started thinking; I’m just as guilty as they are, because I haven’t always put God first. I feel that I wouldn’t have lasted one day before being killed for my sin. I mean, if one sin is enough to kill us, how much more do I deserve to die? The New Testament is filled with God displaying His mercy and forgiveness, and I am grateful for that, but I can’t figure out why He is so easy on us, when He was so tough on the Israelites.